Carnage battles Spider-Man on the cover of Spider-Man #37 by artist Tom Lyle

According to ComicBook.com who have been doing some stirring work aggregating bits of information, The Mask, Batman Forever and Kick-Ass 2 star Jim Carrey has been spotted on the set of his fourth superhero movie, Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Carrey has been filming scenes at the Ravencroft Insistitute For The Criminially Insane, whose traditional patients include the likes of Electro, Doctor Octopus and the Vulture.

Spider-fans, however, suspect that Carrey is playing Cletus Kasady, the deranged host of the rival Venom symbiote Carnage, setting the character up for a role in The Amazing Spider-Man 4, which has been teased as a spin-off.

Carnage first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (April 1992) and was created by writer David Michelinie and artists Erik Larsen and Mark Bagley. Kasady, meanwhile, made his debut in The Amazing Spider-Man #344 (March 1991), so there’s definitely form when it comes to setting the supervillain up as a long term thing.

Venom has been rumoured to be in line for a spin-off since 2007, could this role now be taken over by Carnage? Or are we building toward a Venom versus Carnage scenario with poor old Spidey stuck in the middle?